“Santa’s Tale” at Seagle Festival

I’ve been privileged this week to be in residence at Seagle Festival, the nation’s oldest opera training program, founded in 1915. Located at Schroon Lake in upstate New York, Seagle has trained generations of opera singers, and in recent years the program has included development of new operas.

This year, one of them is Santa’s Tale, a one-hour family opera that I wrote with my good friend and collaborator, composer Anthony Plog. It’s the story of how an ambitious elf named Floyd tries to take over the North Pole, and Santa, with the help of his sidekick Blitzen and a little girl named Molly, rallies to restore the spirit of Christmas.

Our workshop has consisted of three days’ rehearsal with the talented singers, music directors, and dramaturgs who have spent the summer at Seagle. Part of our cast is shown here in rehearsal: (l-r) music director Neill Campbell, Tim Lupia (Blitzen), Jacob O’Shea (Santa), and Emily Cottam (Molly).

The performance—“sit and sing” style with scores in hand—will take place Saturday night, August 28, at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

Here’s a link to the streamed show. After Saturday night the link will take you to an unlisted YouTube video of the performance. Feel free to use the link and to share it with others who may be interested.

And here’s a link to the Seagle Festival website.